Not exactly another cruise...

On Tuesday, we had reservations to take the ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Channel Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.

The ferry was to leave at 12:30pm Nova Scotia (Atlantic) time, and the information online indicated that we needed to be checked in 2 hours beforehand or risk losing our reservation.

We got to the port area at about 10am to check in. We separated the Jee-rage from Gracie as we had made separate reservations for the two vehicles on the ferry (it was more expensive to pay for the combination length of Gracie + Jee-rage than to pay for Gracie and for the Jeep separately).

I was driving the Jee-rage. We don't have reliable phone service in Canada (my phone is working but Carl's hasn't been -- something we are getting corrected) -- so we wore our bike helmets to communicate while we were driving separately.

When I got through the checkin station, they directed me to go to line 8...

... when I drove to line 8, there were no other cars in that line, and I was directed to go directly onboard! When I got to the top of the ramp, they weren't quite ready for me to go on, but I only waited a minute or two before being boarded.

Meanwhile, Carl had been directed to a different line (with other RVs) and was taking pictures from his view waiting to board.

The Jee-rage was the first vehicle boarded on deck 5 (other than some trailers that were being transferred without trucks and had been put on board earlier). The fellow who got me parked said that I would be the first vehicle off the ferry in Newfoundland!

Meanwhile, Carl and Gracie were still waiting.

Unfortunately, our bike helmets would not work at all once I was on the ship... I had thought that I could walk off and go to the motorhome and be with Carl when he boarded, but once I was on, the boat staff would not let me get off.

I went to the very top deck and as far to the back as I could and kept on trying to reach Carl via the bike helmet -- finally he could barely hear me and I told him that I would meet him on the deck where Gracie would be parked when he boarded. Gracie and Carl and Miss Kitty are waaaaayyyy over there in that parking lot...

I went to an inside seating area that allowed me to see out to the parking area and watched until I saw that Gracie was on her way onto the boat...

Then I went down to deck 3 and saw Carl get directed into the parking spot for Gracie.

Gracie parked...

Patti waiting for Carl to come so we could go explore the ship.

We went up to the Sun Deck (deck 10 -- where I had gone to be able to talk with Carl on the bike helmet). This was a view toward the vehicle deck where the Jee-rage was parked -- the Jee-rage is all the way in the front beyond all those tractor trailers. (This is actually the back of the ship when we're moving.)

This was another of Marine Atlantic's ferries there at the port -- it appeared to be undergoing some renovations.

We found a bench on the Sun Deck -- we were anticipating that it might be quite cold, but it was really warm before we started across the channel.

The ship started moving at about 11:50am. We don't know whether the scheduled time of leaving (12:30pm) was Newfoundland time (half hour ahead of Atlantic time), or whether once all the reserved vehicles and passengers are aboard, they go ahead and leave... it seemed to us that they left a bit early, but that was fine with us!

Carl on the Sun Deck with North Sydney behind him.

As we were heading out, another ferry was coming in (the one coming *from* Channel Port aux Basques -- where we were heading).

After getting underway and eating the sandwiches that we packed on the outside deck, we decided to head inside and see what facilities the ship had...

Dining area for the cafeteria...

Cafeteria serving area

The name of the ship was MV Highlanders

There was also a coffee and snack counter.

We spent most of the trip across in "airplane reclining" seats -- they were quite comfortable, and had different videos being shown in different sections (the one that was in front of the section we were in happened to be showing a tennis match that lasted a very long time!). It got quite cold outside as we were crossing the channel so we were glad to have seating inside. The ship has cabins that can be reserved (we will have a cabin on the overnight ferry that we will take when we return from Newfoundland) as well as reserved reclining seats (I guess is a good idea if you're on a crossing that has a very full ship), but we were fine with just finding a seat when we needed it.

About 6.5 hours later, we were told to return to our vehicles to prepare to disembark.

I worked my way through the tractor trailers on deck 5 to the very front spot to get to the Jee-rage.

Meanwhile Carl worked his way to where Gracie was on deck 3.

I was the first car off. It was a little odd being the first off as I had to really pay attention to where I was going and couldn't just follow someone else! Carl and I had decided we would be best to try to meet up at a visitor center parking lot, just a couple of miles from the ferry port. I got there first and watched down the road until I saw Gracie coming...

View of the town of Port aux Basques and the road along which Gracie would be coming.

About 10 minutes after I had gotten to the visitor center, Carl and Gracie (and Miss Kitty) arrived. They would have come even sooner but the driver of the rig parked in front of Gracie was late returning to his vehicle so that delayed their line leaving until 3 other lines had exited and the driver finally arrived. 

We got hooked back up and drove about a half hour to the campground that we had reserved for the night. About 10-12 other vehicles that had come off the ferry were ahead of us checking in, but we eventually got checked in and settled into our spot for the night. We have about 3.5 weeks on Newfoundland and are looking forward to all that we're going to see and do!